Rope railway



(No Model.)

J. B. LOW.

ROPE RAILWAY..

No. 288.646, Patented Nov. 20, 1883.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOEL B. LOW, OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

ROPE RAILWAY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N0. 288,646, dated November 20,. 1883,

' Application filed December 17. 1881. (X0 model.

Rope Railways, of which the following is a.

specification.

My invention relates to the manner of opcrating the grip which connects the car with the underground moving rope; and it con sists in placing the grip upon a frame carried by and between the axles of the main passenger-car, and operating said grip by any suit- I able machinery from either end of the said car,

or by such a device as is herein described.

same time to avoid obstructing the interior of the car by grip-operating machinery.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a plan of my invention, taken below the line of the floor of the car, the center part of which floor is shown broken away, the better to view the parts below. Fig. 2 is a side view of the invention, the near wheels of the car being removed. details, as indicated by reference-letters.

In all the figures of the drawingslike letters represent like parts.

Ais the floor of an ordinary street-car; B, the front and B the rear platform.

0 G O O are the wheels of the car, and D D the axles.

E is a stout iron hanger, which is supported by the axles D D. This hanger is composed of the'two bars 6 e and the two sleeves e c, to which the bars are fastened. The sleeves fit upon the axles D D, and are'held from lateral movement by reason of the axles being turned down to a smaller diameter wherethe sleeves occupy their length, so as to form a shoulder at each end of each sleeve. Collars and setscrews, however, may be used at each end of the sleeves for the same purpose. The sleeves are made in halves and bolted together, as

Figs. 3 and 4 are enlarged views of i the rope H and its position relative to the slot in the roadbed. The cross-bars have the standards 9 g, standing vertically in about the middle of each bar. They receive the grip I by being inserted through the holes in the hubs formed on each end of the tie-frame i of The object is to avoid the use of a separate car I or dummy to carry the grip, and at the the grip. As the grip herein illustrated is the one patented to Grim and Low, August 16, 1881, No. 245,627, it will be unnecessary to enter further into the details of its construction. Reference may be made to said patent for a description in detail. It has of course been necessary to make some changes in the grip to adapt it to the conditions of my new way of operating it. Some of the parts have been left out and others have been added.

There is placed upon the shaft or axle of the cam or eccentric a spur-gear wheel, J. This wheel is moved'to the right or left in operat ing the grip by a rack-gear, K, which slides back and forth in a suitable guide or bearing, L, bolted to the stationary side bars of the grip. The rack-gear K is connected fromeach end to two other rack-gears, M M, supported in suitable guides or bearings, N N, which are fastened under the extreme end of the platforms 13 B. 'The connections are made by the rods 0 O. In making the joint between the 'rods 0 O and the rack-gears the fact must be observed that one rack is attached to the;car body, which, being supported on springs, varies its height according to the load it carries, the variation often exceeding two Jor three inches, while the other rack is attached to the grip, adjustable both as to its height and horizontal position. best to allow some flexibility in these joints, though the spring of the rods, where they are long enough, may often answer all purposes. It may be preferred in some cases to support these rods in guides fastened on the car bottom. In such cases an intermediate flexible For this reason it would be link in the rod may be provided at the grip end. This matter may be left, however, to the discretion of the constructer. The rackgears M M engage with the spur-pinions -P I, which are loosely fitted to the lower ends of upright rods Q Q.

R R are hand-wheels secured to upper ends of rods Q Q, by which the rods are turned.

S S are ordinary ratchet-wheels, which, together with the pawls T T, serve to check the rods Q Q backward when the operator releases his hold of the hand-wheels.

U U are disks loosely fitted on shafts Q Q, either cast solid with or in some way fastened to the pinions P P. They are perforated with six or eight ho es at such a distance from the center as will correspond with a hole which is perforated in each of the ratchet-wheels S S.

V is a pin, which, when passed through the hole in one of the ratchet-wheels and into one of the holes in the disk U, immediately below it, serves to lock the two together, so that when the upright shaft is turned by the handwheel, the pinion, though loose 011 the shaft, is revolved with it. hen this pin is removed, the pinion cannot be turned by turning the hand-wheel. There being but one pin, the engineer carries it with him from one end of the car to the other, thus insuring that no one can operate the other end in his absencea matter of necessary precaution to avoid accidents. The upright shafts are supported on the frames WV W, which project from underneath the carplatform, a suitable metal step being provided to receive the point of each shaft. Bearings for these shafts are also attached to the rails of the platform, exactly like the ordinary brake-wheel shafts.

The brake for the car is precisely as ordinarily used. I do not wish to confuse my drawings by showing it, and as it forms no part of my invention I need not describe it here.

Immediately over the grip there is provided in the floor of the car a trap-door sufficiently large to pass thegrip through. Generally the grip is put in place whenever the ear goes into service and removed when it returns from service. Sometimes it is required to be taken up or examined in the middle of a trip.

In the class of railways to which this invention relates the engineer must always have an unobstructed view of the track in front of him. This necessitates his occupying the front its trip, .in' cases where the car is not turned around'at the termini. He therefore requires ceases a set of machinery at each end in such cases; but if the arrangement of the road permits the car to be turned end for end at the termini, then but one set of operating rods and gears need be supplied.

The operation of the device may be summed -up as follows: The car being ready to start,

the engineer inserts the pin through the ratchet-wheel and disk. He then turns the hand wheel so as to cause the pinion to act onthe rack M, so as to draw the rod 0 toward it, motion being thus transmitted to the gear on the cam-shaft of the grip, to the effect of raising the bar, which in this grip operates to close the jaws tightly 011 the rope, a reverse motion releasing the rope from the jaws. (See patent before mentioned.)

In very many cases the engineer can act as conductor also, and thus economize expenses.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is as follows:

1. In a rope railway with underground rope, the combination, with an ordinary passengercar, of a rope gripping device extending through a narrow slot in an underground tube and therein gripping the rope, said gripping device being set underneath the fioor of the car in a position central to the group of supporting-wheels, and suitable mechanism at one or both ends of the car for operating said gripping device.

2. In arope railway with underground rope, the combination, with an ordinary passengercar, of a rope-gripping device supported by and between the wheel-axles, and suitable mechanism at one or both ends of the car for operating said gripping device.

3. Inaroperailwaywith underground rope, the combination, with the passenger-car, of the hanger E, grip I, with gear J, rack K, rod 0, rack M, pinion P, and shaft Q, arranged and operated as and for the purpose herein described.

4. Inarope railway with underground rope, the combination, with an ordinary passengercar, of a rope gripping device extending through a narrow slot in an underground tube and gripping the rope therein, said gripping device being set entirely underneath the carfloor, and suitable mechanism leading from said gripping device to the end of the car beyond the entranceplatform, substantially as and for the purpose described.

JOEL B. LOW.

\Vitn esses:

GEORGE PARDY, THOMAS H. BARCLAY. 

